Originally posted by Saxman
1. Can't really answer that as I don't fly Spits and haven't run into enough XIV's
2. C-Hog because A) there were only a couple hundred built, and B) as has been stated before at one point the whopping majority of kills were being scored by C-Hogs, unbalancing the MA in a way the 16 and ElGay never have.
And the F4U-4 is an absolute MONSTER compared to any other prop plane in the game. Don't give the "no cannons" bull. Anyone who don't respect Ma Deuce is due to be rudely reminded just how nasty the .50 cal can be. I'd LOVE to have an unperked F4U-4, but you want to talk about unbalancing the main that'll surely do it.
3. See my first reason for the C-Hog.
4. Because other than guns and the ability to run from a fight there's really not much special I've seen about the La-7.
5. Because there's a LOT of stupid people in this country.
1:
Which MA do you fly in? Try flying any evening of the week that ends in 'y' ... *edit* apologies here, thought you were talking about the XVI, not the XIV! There's tons of 16's flyin' because it's a DANG good plane, and it's relatively new to our hangars...every night I run into more and more of 'em. Not too many XIV's...er 14's though. Why bother below 25k alt?2: Hmm...about as many as N1K's and LA-7's made, yeah?
F4U-4 a monster? It's like...9th in acceleration at sea level; the Spit XVI, Ki, most of the 109's and lots others fight vertically better than the -4 hog. Without flaps it's
way down the list in turning...with full flaps it's not even in the top dozen. Without cannons it's not going to get kills very easily unless you can line up an unloaded shot, and it's slower than both Ponies, the LA, K-4, Dora...Kweassa's and Mosq's data all say it's a good plane on paper, but not the uber perked ride that I keep hearing about. Do you think the F4U-4 would win a fight 1-vs.-1 co-alt at normal dogfight altitudes vs. a Spit 16 if both pilots had equal skill in their rides?
I'll go play with it more in the DA and HTH to see if I can justify perking it while the LA-7 and Spit XVI are free rides. For now though it's like the TA-152...in the "why is this thing perked?" category.
As for your number 3...there was a day when everyone was HO'ing with the Chog and pretty much just flew that. I don't mind the small perk pt. cost of it, but there's more planes to fly now than when that was happening. And Tyffies/Hurri-C's have taken over its old role quite nicely now
Some folks feel that unperking it would make the -1 and D hogs hanger queens, which would be a shame. I disagree because of the nice values assigned to these when you're wanting to earn points; heck, I like the D-hog better than the Hellkitty, and it's worth more points to fly the Corsair over the F6F
About your 4th point; it's a shame that the LA-7 gets so abused by folks that just want to zip in, take a bad shot and run away...wash, rinse, repeat. It's really an amazing fighter in the right hands, very versitile, but that's the same of many planes available to fly.
n/c on the 5th point, although I tend to agree with Einstein about the universe and mankind's stupidity being infinite, and he wasn't quite certain about the universe.
